Crowning Glory
by Julia456
Summary: Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.
1. Chapter 1

Notes: After _ReBoot_, I said "No more." No more Canadian CGI action/humor/fantasy shows with clever dialogue and intriguing setups and fun characters! It's too hard, when they go off the air! _It's too hard!_ I'm not made of_ stone_, people! - I can't have my heart broken again!

But yet, here I am.

(And _ReBoot_'s coming back, so there.)

The summary line is from Judges 16:22, with Samson and all, and this takes place immediately after "Talon Academy". The night blindness is for my own amusement.

* * *

"There has to be _some_ way to fix it. I know there is!"

Piper's got that gleam in her eye - that determined gleam, the one she gets when someone drops a challenge in her lap - and Aerrow abruptly sees long hours as a lab rat in his future. Most of the time, nearly all of the time, her experiments are dazzling successes. But _some_times... Well. Crystals aren't picky about who they explode on.

So he backpedals away from his complaints, as fast and gracefully as he can, which is not very. "Uh, no, I mean - it's a pain, but it's okay. I don't want you to, um, go to any trouble."

"It won't be any trouble," she says, cheerfully waving him off, rummaging around her lab for who-knows-what. "I've been working on this new project, and the results have been amazing. At first it didn't work at all, but then I figured out that I just had to change the exposure time-"

She goes on, but Aerrow tunes her out in favor of silently brooding. His hair. Why did it have to be his _hair_? And why the heck has Radarr been suggesting it's better this way?

"- for rapid plant growth, actually - but I'm sure I can modify it." Piper concludes with a relentlessly sunny, "Just a few tweaks here and there, and _voila!_ - you'll be as good as new!"

Whoa, whoa. He may have missed a few things, but - Plant growth? _Rapid_ plant growth? You don't have to be a pessimistic doomsaying Merb to see _that_ has disaster written all over it.

Aerrow grits his teeth and tries not to wince at the monumental lie as he says it: "It's just hair. It'll... grow out?"

She looks at him like he's grown a new head, instead of having had his existing one shaved practically bald. "Are you sure? I know I laughed at you before, and I'm sorry... but, um... Are you sure you don't want me to try?"

Aerrow forces a grin. It looks as fake as it feels, but not as fake as his bright tone. "Yes! _Absolutely_. I'm thinking of it as a, uh - as a character-building opportunity."

"Well... okay." Piper doesn't believe him, he can tell. She's giving him a suspicious, fishy, sideways stare, and it might be tinged with hurt... which makes him kinda feel like a big, mostly-bald jerk... but, hey, she _said_ it was okay, didn't she?

"Great! Thanks!" he says, and makes a break for it.


	2. Chapter 2

Finn finds him, of course, when he's half-under his skimmer, struggling with Radarr to loosen a stubborn valve just a teensy fraction - a very, very teensy fraction, because any more than that will get him a faceful of hydraulic fluid.

"Hey man," Finn says, loud and ebullient - the way Finn usually is - and that close and unexpected, the greeting startles Aerrow.

And yes, the wrench in his hand jerks harder than he planned and he comes up spitting and hacking and wiping at his eyes and mouth - while Radarr, of course, neatly dodges it all. "Hey," Aerrow says to his friend, with considerably less enthusiasm.

Finn looks at the mess without much interest - just an easygoing observer, not at all guilty for _causing_ anything. "Sorry about that, dude. Hey - you know what the difference is between a bad haircut and a good one?"

Aerrow gives him a dirty glare. "No."

"Two weeks," Finn says, holding up two fingers in a smug V and then swiping the hand through his unbutchered blond hair. "Though in your case, maybe longer."

"Ha ha," Aerrow says as Finn dissolves into snickering laughter. He runs a hand over his own hair - what's left of it, he thinks dourly - and realizes there's hydraulic fluid in it, too. Fan_tas_tic.

"Seriously," Finn says. "You should use this moment to, y'know, rethink certain styling choices. Like, maybe you could go for a more laid-back look. Something that says, 'Hey, I may be super awesome, but I'm still _cool_.' You know?"

Finn: As predictable as Ravess and violins, but with ninety percent more ego.

Aerrow exchanges a glance with Radarr. "Like... yours?"

"If you want to." Finn raises his hands in mock defense. "I know, I know, you're thinking, 'Can I pull it off?' And you probably can't, no offense, but that shouldn't stop you from trying. I mean, it is a really good look."

"Thanks. I'll take it under advisement," Aerrow says. He waits until Finn saunters off before he rolls his eyes and shakes his head. The motion doesn't feel the same, with his Talon Academy buzzcut, and the prickle of sadness makes him a little exasperated with himself.

"It's just hair," he mutters to himself. Maybe if he keeps saying it, it'll come true.


	3. Chapter 3

Right before lunch, clean and - yup - still pretty much bald, he walks onto the bridge and gets a piece of paper shoved into his face.

"Here," Stork says. "I took the precaution of cataloguing your potential symptoms."

Aerrow takes the paper. "What symptoms?"

"Oh, you know. From whatever disgusting diseases you were exposed to by that so-called 'barber'," Stork says, shuddering. "Did they nick you? Scrape your scalp at any point with an improperly sterilized blade? That's a perfect vector for infection. And I can't imagine a less hygienic environment than a _Talon_ school run by _Snipe_."

"That's a good point," Aerrow mutters. He looks at the list and starts reading aloud: " 'Headache, dizziness, swollen glands, swollen feet, abdominal swelling, dry skin, dry mouth, redness' - Stork, what diseases does this list cover, exactly?"

Stork shrugs. "All of them."

Aerrow's eyebrows go up involuntarily. "Uh... very thorough."

"Keep reading."

He flips the paper over and skips down to the bottom of the list. " 'Nausea, night blindness, hives, fever, cough, racking cough, loss of appetite, anemia, death.' Wait, _death_? Death is a _symptom_?"

"The final symptom," Stork says, dark and bleak.

Aerrow looks at the list, then at Stork, who is totally serious and, unnervingly, frequently correct. "Thanks. I'll, um, keep an eye out for these." He waves the list vaguely and starts edging towards the door.

"The night blindness, in particular," Stork says with a smile that's still a liiiiittle creepy even though Aerrow knows they're friends and teammates. "Makes flying in the dark... challenging."


	4. Chapter 4

He throws Stork's list in the trash. Discreetly.


	5. Chapter 5

Thirty minutes later he goes and gets Stork's list out of the trash. Also discreetly.

Night blindness. Really?


	6. Chapter 6

"I dunno, I think short hair is underappreciated," Junko says. He sets down the crate and smoothes the top of his own head with one huge hand.

"I know _I_ don't appreciate it," Aerrow mutters, too low for him to hear.

"You know," Junko says, "we're not here because of your hair. We're here because we're your friends."

And it's true. That's totally true. Aerrow has five of the best friends in the world - friends who're practically family, friends who will fight for him, with him. And he'll fight for_ them_. Against all enemies and dangers. No matter what.

And that has nothing to do with his hair. Zero, nada, zilch. Who he is and what he can do - what he _will _do - has nothing to do with his hair. He stands a little straighter.

"Thanks, Junko," Aerrow says. "I... needed to hear that, I guess."

"You're our Sky Knight, and we're your squadron," Junko says, loyally. "No matter how terrible your hair looks," he adds, then claps his hands over his mouth, aghast. "Um... not that it looks _that_ bad?"

Aerrow pats the big guy on the shoulder. "It's okay." He refrains from saying, _I know my hair sucks_, but only just barely.

So much for building character.


	7. Chapter 7

It doesn't matter what Stork says: Death is _not_ a symptom. And he's _not _going to get night blindness, for pete's sake.

Although...

_No_. If he thinks about it too much, he'll get all creepy and paranoid. Like Stork.

He throws the list in the trash again.


	8. Chapter 8

He sometimes has this dream - okay, it's more of a nightmare - where he's fighting the Dark Ace. He has it again tonight.

Only this time, he's winning, no question, and he's got the Cyclonian backed into the proverbial corner, and he's raising his blades for the _coup de grace_, the one final blow that'll finally defeat the undefeatable, when the Dark Ace looks up at him and starts laughing so hard he cries.

Laughing _at his hair_.

Aerrow wakes up with a jolt, then drags the pillow over his face so he can a) muffle his scream of frustration and b) smother himself and just get the humiliation over with. _Please_.

After a minute he realizes he's an idiot, and, resigned to being a lab rat, he swings his feet to the floor, gets up, and goes down the Condor's quiet, dark corridors to Piper's room.

He knocks and waits.

The door thunks open and she squints at him, rubbing one bleary eye. Her own hair is sticking up in some... different... angles. "Hm? What's going on?"

He's slightly distracted by jealousy - he remembers when _his_ hair could look like he's stuck his finger in a light socket - but at least jealousy takes some of the sting out of the humiliation. "I've been thinking, and, uh... I changed my mind. You can go ahead and do... whatever it was you were talking about doing earlier."

She instantly looks ten shades more awake - alert enough to realize she needs to smooth down her wayward 'do. Which she does. "Really?"

He nods.

But of course she's not going to let him get away with the request completely unscathed. She fixes him with a mock-fierce glare: "What happened to 'it's a character-building experience'?"

He scrubs one hand through the sad collection of bristles on top of his head. "Maybe I don't want this much character?" he offers, trying to look pathetic and knowing it's not much of a challenge, these days.

Piper grins. "Okay," she says, relenting and standing back to let him in. "You won't be sorry - I know it's going to work. I just _know_ it!"

Funny, because Aerrow just _knows_ he's in trouble.


	9. Chapter 9

The good news is: It works.

The bad news is: It works...

..._.a lot_.

"I don't have any dignity left, do I?" Aerrow asks, resigned.

"Nope," Finn says, slightly out of breath from jumping.

Radarr, also jumping, makes a noise of agreement.

"I wouldn't say _no_ dignity," Junko says thoughtfully.

Piper _tsks_ and rounds on them, exclaiming, "Would you guys _stop_ for a minute? I can't cut his hair under these conditions!"

She has the scissors, so she wins.

"Sor-_ry_," Finn says. Sounding very un-sorry. Junko lets the ten-foot impromptu jumprope of red hair drop to the hangar floor, chastised. Finn sulks. Radarr looks disappointed, the traitor.

Piper resumes cutting his surplus of of hair, while Aerrow just rests his head in his hands and sighs.

_Snip, snip, snip-snip_ -

"Oops," Piper says. "Um..."

"_Dude_," Finn says, halfway between horror and hilarity.

Junko scratches his head and looks confused. "Is it supposed to be that short?"

**-end!-**


End file.
